Rodney Harrell – AARPhttp://blog.aarp.org
Mon, 11 Dec 2017 17:26:37 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.1Visualizing the Housing Gap – the 2017 LTSS Scorecardhttp://blog.aarp.org/2017/07/18/visualizing-the-housing-gap-the-2017-ltss-scorecard/
http://blog.aarp.org/2017/07/18/visualizing-the-housing-gap-the-2017-ltss-scorecard/#respondTue, 18 Jul 2017 19:12:15 +0000http://blog.aarp.org/?p=154245If you look at the 2017 Long Term Services and Supports (LTSS) Scorecard, you may notice that something is different in this third edition– housing and transportation indicators are included for the first time. Affordable and accessible housing and transportation options are key components of a livable community. Having options that people can access, regardless of their age, income, physical ability or other factors brings them closer to the community features and services they need to remain engaged in their communities.

AARP’s Livability Index gives higher housing scores to neighborhoods in counties with more subsidized (sometimes known as affordable) housing, as it ensures that people of all incomes can have access to a place to live. One of the elements of a high-functioning LTSS system is that it gives people choices about where to live and receive services. Affordable housing is essential to shifting the delivery of LTSS from an institutional model towards home and community-based care. However, a major barrier to transitioning people out of institutions and back to their communities is the lack of affordable and accessible housing options. The Scorecard includes a measure of the supply of subsidized housing at the state level, an important resource to help individuals with lower incomes and LTSS needs stay in the community and receive services at home or in a community setting.

This Scorecard measure captures the total amount of subsidized housing opportunities—spanning many different programs—divided by the total number of housing units in a state. The total number of subsidized housing opportunities has risen since 2011, but it still falls short of current and future needs.

This chart shows the supply of subsidized housing opportunities in each state in 2015 (blue bars), the improvement from four years earlier (red line), and the gap in affordable housing opportunities (light blue solid area). Nationally, there are more than 18 million renters at or below area median income (most of whom are cost-burdened by housing) and fewer than 8 million potentially subsidized units. There is still an affordable housing crisis in our country.

The solution seems simple – we should build more of this housing. Federal programs such as Section 202 have historically built new affordable housing for older adults with low incomes. However, the federal government has stopped funding new construction of this and similar programs, and fewer affordable apartments are available under these programs. Vouchers have become more popular due to their efficiency, but holders may have a hard time finding appropriate housing and landlords who will accept their voucher in more livable neighborhoods. Those counting on a subsidized unit might find that there are not enough available in a helpful location.

Decades ago, we did not anticipate that people with LTSS needs would stay in their communities, so most of our neighborhoods were not designed for their needs. While communities work to build more housing with “universal design” features, many units may have steps and other barriers that are problematic for those with LTSS needs. This must change if our communities are going to meet the goal of providing options for all people of all ages.

Join Dr. Harrell and other AARP experts for a twitter chat to discuss housing needs and the LTSS Scorecard at 1pm EDT on July 19. Join the conversation using #PickUpthePace and share your questions and insights.

Rodney Harrell, PhD, is Director of Livable Communities for the AARP Public Policy Institute. His expertise includes neighborhood choice, housing affordability and accessibility, transit-oriented development, community redevelopment, sustainable community initiatives and other livable communities issues.

Translation: Planners need to get together with aging network professionals and talk!

Why? Many aging network professionals are in the business of designing plans with individuals to help them to thrive in their homes and communities for as long as possible; planners, meanwhile, envision and bring form to livable communities.

The conversation, in fact, has already begun. An in-depth discussion of this kind took place in March through a half-day Livable Communities Summit at the American Society on Aging’s (ASA) annual conference in Chicago. AARP sponsored this first-ever joint event between the ASA and the APA, where over 250 professionals from both sectors explored areas of overlap and discussed how to collaborate better moving forward.

The summit also engaged participants in a survey on these emerging cross-sector relationships (a follow-up survey and results will be publicly shared at a later date) and presented case studies from a variety of community types across the country where planning and aging practitioners are increasingly intertwining disciplines. Summit organizers were even intentional regarding seating arrangements, mixing planners and aging professionals together to ensure dynamic exchange between those with diverse perspectives.

Participants discussed issues and opportunities that affect many communities:

how to approach the intersection of livable communities and the aging population when local government has no interest or awareness; and

jointly working with builders to see their work through an aging lens.

One participant at the summit articulated that policy changes must “pay attention to the needs and wants of older adults, not what we think is best.” To be sure, these are conversations that should be happening in every community.

Planners everywhere are confronting the challenges posed by aging communities. At the event planners were able to find value in the realization that there are “other planners like me involved in this … there are many people keenly interested in this mission that I can join forces with.” Moreover, using national resources and working with local aging network professionals enhances planners’ ability to address challenges and maximize the benefits of the asset that older adults in the community represent.

The summit dialogue should mark the beginning of a strengthening collaboration. We at the AARP Public Policy Institute welcome the ideas of planners and aging network professionals alike on how to continue these cross-sector discussions at the local, regional and national levels. We also would love to hear from all sectors about their own experiences engaging in these conversations.

Rodney Harrell is the director of livability thought leadership for AARP. He discusses livable community issues @DrUrbanPolicy.Stephanie K. Firestone is a senior strategic policy adviser covering the areas of health and age-friendly communities for AARP International.

In 1961, AARP’s founder, Ethel Andrus, presented President Dwight Eisenhower with Freedom House. The scale model of a uniquely designed home contained

Ethel Andrus presents Freedom House to President Eisenhower.

what we would now call universal design features that allow people to stay in their homes as they age.

Fifty-seven years later, we continue to implement that vision. This morning in Memphis, Walter Moody, a veteran who has faced a range of life challenges including housing instability, is going to walk into his newly renovated home for the first time.

His story is a compelling one. Moody now devotes himself to “giving back” by working for Catholic Charities of West Tennessee on a program dedicated to ending veteran homelessness.

We imagine that this will be a day that changes Mr. Moody’s life and the lives of his family members. Yet there is a deeper and broader significance to his home, one that stretches far beyond the walls of the newly renovated dwelling. The house is the result of a national design competition for transforming existing homes into ones where people can age in place — and the latest example of taking steps forward to meet our housing needs in the future. The ReDefine Home: Home Today Home Tomorrow competition builds on Ethel Andrus’ legacy of inspiration by remodeling a house and creating a home that can meet needs as we age.

Competition’s genesis

For many, our current homes may meet our needs today but may not if our circumstances change; those homes that used to serve us so well can become isolating, inconvenient or even dangerous. Yet while policies enabling such practices as universal design and visitability help create more housing that is useful, safe and attractive, those efforts are often focused on new housing. We also need a solution for some of the over 100 million homes that already exist in the U.S.

At the Future of Housing Summit in December 2015, AARP and AARP Foundation announced a collaboration with Home Matters and Wells Fargo, as well as other partners including Home Depot, to renovate a “typical” home and use it as a test bed for innovation — a real-life example to help change America’s view on housing. Two critical issues surfacing from discussions at the summit were the need to expand the supply of housing that meets our needs as we age, and to increase demand among consumers for homes that meet their needs not only today (generally people’s foremost priority when buying a home) but for decades to come.

To that end, and to address the current housing stock rather than just new builds, we challenged the nation’s architects to create innovative solutions; the best ones were adapted for use in the home that is being given to Mr. Moody.

A template to build on

With Mr. Moody’s home now completed, we are going to develop a tool kit to help homeowners, builders, architects and others bring these housing features to more homes. Today, it is clear that all sectors and a wide range of partners will be needed to meet our housing needs.

When Walter Moody and his family step into their new home for the first time, they will begin a new phase of their lives. It is an occasion well worth celebrating, and it’s one that AARP founder Ethel Andrus surely would celebrate alongside them. In fact, she would see this special occasion for the hope that it engenders in all of us — the hope, that is, that this home does more than change the lives of one family. Held within that home are lessons that have the potential to improve millions more.

Rodney Harrell is the director of livability thought leadership for AARP. He discusses livable community issues @DrUrbanPolicy.Shannon Guzman is a senior analyst on livable communities, and Dan Soliman is director for housing for AARP Foundation. The Future of Housing initiative highlights their work.

]]>http://blog.aarp.org/2017/02/02/redefinehomefutureofhousing/feed/0http://blog.aarp.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/MEMDesignChallenge-081.jpghttp://blog.aarp.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/MEMDesignChallenge-081-185x185.jpgThe Future of Housinghttp://blog.aarp.org/2015/12/14/the-future-of-housing/
http://blog.aarp.org/2015/12/14/the-future-of-housing/#respondMon, 14 Dec 2015 20:44:47 +0000http://blog.aarp.org/?p=144637In less than two decades, over 70 million Americans will be age 65 and older and they will represent approximately 20 percent of the population. Will we have affordable and accessible housing options that meet their needs?

We already face challenges. Currently, high housing costs force millions of low-income older adults to sacrifice spending on other necessities. The vast majority of the nation’s housing lacks basic accessibility features such as a no-step entrance, wide hallways and doorways and other features that allow people to thrive in a home regardless of physical ability or age. Many older adults face potential isolation issues because of the ways that our neighborhoods and communities have been constructed. Our public policies do not fully reflect the connections between housing and other issues, including health and the services and supports that people need to stay in their homes and communities as they age. We aren’t meeting these today, and if we do not start working on solutions now, the magnitude of the problem will only grow larger.

Future of Housing: Meeting Accessibility Needs

AARP and AARP Foundation held a Future of Housing Summit to launch an initiative that will help to address these issues. This began with a The Atlantic Housing for Tomorrow Forum Dec. 2 that featured AARP CEO Jo Ann Jenkins, HUD Secretary Julian Castro and many distinguished panelists. They spoke about the housing issues that the nation faces now and into the future, and highlighted some promising opportunities to create change.

The Housing For Tomorrow Forum

The next day, in collaboration with HUD, we brought together over 75 thought leaders for a Future of Housing roundtable. Housing developers, financial institutions, advocacy groups, health experts, staff from several federal departments (including HUD, HHS and Treasury) and others spent the day working on difficult issues, including the demand for and supply of housing that meets our needs, the availability of financing options and the connection between health and housing.

The Future of Housing Roundtable set out to address the housing issues that impact us all

In order to jump-start the process of finding solutions, two competitions were announced: a $50K Aging In Place Innovation Prize and the Redefining Home: Home Today, Home Tomorrow Design Challenge that will transform an existing home into a practical home for the future. This challenge will provide innovative design solutions for making our current homes more suitable for people of all ages. It is a collaboration between AARP, AARP Foundation, Wells Fargo and Home Matters, and is just one example of the teamwork that will be needed to address America’s housing needs.

Several organizations are coming together to support a design challenge that will help homeowners find ways to adapt their homes

These two days were only the beginning – many of the groups at the summit are already taking other steps to address these challenges, including the team at the Public Policy Institute. Stay tuned for more.

(Photo credits: Greg Kahn)

Engage With Us

What are the most important changes that we need to make to our housing policies? Share your answers on social media using #FutureofHousing. Visit AARP’s Future of Housing homepage to learn more.

Rodney Harrell is the director of livable communities in the AARP Public Policy Institute, focusing on housing and livable communities issues. He also leads @AARPpolicy social media efforts and discusses livable community issues @DrUrbanPolicy.

Older adults have a diverse range of preferences, needs and constraints. Income, caregiver/disability status, race and ethnicity, location and other personal factors all impact residents’ perspective on the features of their community.

To advance our understanding of community livability, we held focus groups and fielded a nationwide survey to look at what older adults want and need in their communities. Their responses addressed many components of AARP’s official definition of a “livable community.” These include safety, affordable and appropriate housing and transportation options, community features, and services that (among other things) allow people to age in place. We heard about factors that community leaders can improve (such as school quality and police presence, and things that they can’t (like proximity to family).

We found that people tend to focus on their experience with their neighborhood’s quality, rather than considering their future needs. Older adults might have liked a neighborhood with few cars when they moved in with young children. However, a quiet suburb might become isolating when a resident can no longer drive and there are few shops or meeting places nearby. It can be difficult to age in place when a community does not have the features that older adults need and want.

Improving Communities

Our survey asked older adults what their communities should do to improve. The top 5 answers were:

This list shows that older adults’ preferences overlap with issues that are important to people of all ages. Preferred amenities from survey and focus group respondents are illustrated below.

Communities need to develop the options that residents want, and people need information to make smarter decisions about where they can age in place and to encourage their communities to change. Our new paper, “What Is Livable? Community Preferences of Older Adults,” explores these issues.

These findings help us to begin to answer another question that has plagued researchers: How do we measure community livability? We developed the following framework:

On May 2 at noon Eastern, Dr. Harrell will join his coauthors on these two reports for a webinar and Twitter chat to discuss this research, measuring livability and the project to build a livability index. Go to bit.ly/LivIndexChat for more information on the webinar, and visit bit.ly/LivIndex for more on the livability index project. Follow #LivIndex for the ongoing conversation.

Rodney Harrell is a senior strategic policy adviser with the AARP Public Policy Institute focusing on housing and livable communities issues. Dr. Harrell’s research on housing preferences, neighborhood choice and community livability led to the development of the conceptual framework behind the #LivIndex project. He also leads @AARPpolicy social media efforts and discusses livable community issues @DrUrbanPolicy.

]]>http://blog.aarp.org/2014/04/25/measuring-livability/feed/0http://blog.aarp.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Portland.jpghttp://blog.aarp.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Portland-185x185.jpgWant to Influence Policy? Join AARP’s Advisory Councilhttp://blog.aarp.org/2014/02/13/want-to-influence-policy-join-aarps-advisory-council/
http://blog.aarp.org/2014/02/13/want-to-influence-policy-join-aarps-advisory-council/#respondThu, 13 Feb 2014 15:00:28 +0000http://blog.aarp.org/?p=62802AARP members with policy experience should consider applying for our all-volunteer National Policy Council (NPC), which serves as an advisory body to the AARP Board of Directors, which sets AARP policies.

Becoming a member of the NPC requires more than policy expertise. Members attend NPC meetings in person at least four times in Washington or around the country. NPC members also participate in webinars and conference calls throughout the year and prepare for these by reading substantial amounts of information and policy analysis.

Many NPC members also represent specific regions of the country. They meet with and listen to AARP volunteers and staff in their respective regions to ensure that the National Policy Council understands policy issues at the local level and the concerns and challenges in each state. The goal is to make sure AARP members, volunteers and staff can make their voice heard on policy issues.

What does it take to be effective as an NPC member? “You have to go in prepared to learn from a diversity of opinions, whether it is from readings, policy papers or conversations with experts from around the country,” says Barbara Sabol, a retired nurse who held corporate and nonprofit leadership positions. “Being an NPC volunteer is intellectually stimulating. Part of your contribution is just learning, because you’re not going to be able to be expert in everything, but you can learn about new things and make them applicable to what you do know about. And, you learn a lot about yourself as well.”

It’s also important to be a consensus-builder as part of the National Policy Council. “The NPC is composed of people from different parts of the country with different experiences. But as an NPC member, you have to, for a moment, put aside your point of view, listen to everyone’s input, and come up with policy language that encompasses as many needs as possible and works wherever it is applied,” notes Lynn Young, an NPC member who worked as a school district analyst and educator, public utilities manager and advocate. She says that NPC policy recommendations are carefully reviewed in committee and before the entire council before being sent on to the board. “The decision of the group needs to be supported by every member of the group.”

NPC member John Ruoff, an expert on state tax, budget and fiscal policy, points out that the council works to find consensus from a range of perspectives.“I think one of the really nice things about the council is that there is significant diversity of experience. There is no single mold for an NPC member. People from different backgrounds and experiences help make the product better.”

Sound like something you would like to do? If you are an AARP member over the age of 50, I encourage you to apply. The National Policy Council’s Nominating Committee is accepting applications through Feb. 28. For more information, go to www.aarp.org/npc.

Dorothy Siemon is vice president of the AARP Office of Policy Integration.

It’s true that AARP and NAR did not use the same data, so we can expect results not to match perfectly. Our paper, for example, focused on the 50+ middle class only, looked at a different time frame, and used different data sets than the NAR study. But results of the two studies are starkly divergent, reflecting basic differences in what we mean by “affordability.”

When the NAR and others in the real estate industry evaluate affordability, they focus on home sales. Their index compares home prices to income at a single point in time: the time of purchase of a home.

When I investigate housing affordability, I want to know whether people can afford to stay in their homes on an ongoing basis. I look to see if families are dealing with stagnant incomes, increasing taxes and fees, along with higher utility bills and other costs of housing. Can they keep their homes? That is the key affordability question.

Affordability is not simply about the ability to purchase a home. It is an ongoing concern every month for a large number of families. If a health care emergency or another unexpected and costly event hits these families, they are increasingly in danger of not being able to pay next month’s mortgage or rent.

Our latest AARP Public Policy Institute study on housing shows that many older adults (and younger adults) are facing more difficult circumstances today than they were at the turn of the century. It’s an issue that we can’t afford to ignore.

Rodney Harrell, PhD, is a Senior Strategic Policy Advisor with the AARP Public Policy Institute and is responsible for AARP’s housing research agenda. His expertise includes housing affordability and accessibility, transit-oriented development, community redevelopment and sustainable community initiatives.